Other people feel that any non-conservative compromise is giving in to the enemy. I do not agree with this way of thinking. I understand that people hate to see long-cherished principles unsupported by the President, but I am looking at other goals, like winning the war and taking back the Senate.
It is quite possible that you are correct, and we are giving away too much. On the other hand, it is also possible that the course that the President has selected (and which I support) is correct.
The President did not campaign on jailing Bill Clinton, abolishing the departments of Education and HHS, or pulling us out of the UN. Gripes about those positions are ridiculous, as far as I am concerned. Becaue Bush is more conservative than Gore (which he is) it is unfair to gripe that he isn't taking the most extreme views of conservatives. He never said he would, and I did not expect him to do so. He campaigned as a uniter, not a divider.
Now, on certain issues I am less than thrilled...education for one. However, I look at the sum total of the President's work, and I also keep in mind what we could have had instead.
If you are worried about certain issues, call or write the White House. That is what I do. It gives them an idea of what the average person is thinking. However, I ask you to also keep in mind that when we have a democrat Senate, a popular vote minority, and a hostile media, President Bush has accomplished a lot in his first 18 months. Is it eveything we want? Of course not. But is it pretty good? I think so.
Do you write or call the White House to praise those things you agree with? Did you send a note of encouragement after we pulled out of the World Court? How about when he ditched Kyoto? How about when he pulled out of the ABM treaty? Those are things that would have NEVER happened with a dem as president.
In my opinion, those who are griping about domestic issues are allowing the media to set the agenda. Who in the heck would have really cared about that farm bill if Rush hadn't ranted about it for three days? Most people don't even know about it to this day. And most of the gripers don't ever dare mention that Reagan passed a farm bill as well, nor that Quayle was on Fox supporting the President, even though he had passed this dreaded bill.
That is where I stand on this. Those who think the country is in peril are correct...but it is not because of passage of CFR, the Farm Bill, or the Education Bill. We are in peril because we are at war, we have a fifth colummn in this country made up of non-Arabs as well as Muslims, and we have a hostile media.
In order for compromise to work conservatives must walk away from the table with something, we don't. We don't have anyone in office, and haven't since Reagan, that will fight for our side and demand something to take away from the table.
We all call the RINO's in office cowardly, spineless, they even proved that during the last Republican Revolution when they were in control. Now we are grasping at straws hoping for Republican Revolution II, and it will be a failure.
There are three reasons I am going to go ahead and vote in November, one is for you guys because it is so important to you, two, because if a Democrat takes the Presidency in 2004 it's better for partisan politics to continue, weak as it is from RINO's, and three, because I will find it interesting to see a Republican President, who hasn't been able to find his Veto Pen, other than to deny disabled vets, suddenly veto almost everything that comes across his desk. Mostly he will be able to bully the Repubs in Congress and the Senate not to cause a "rift" between the White House and them, a bad show for the public to observe, by not placing something in front of him that he will Veto. I see it all right here in my crystal ball.=o)
The speed with which things are going south demands action to alot of our minds. There are two roads to go that I can see as potentially successful, a devastating no show at the polls for Republicans, or marching on our respective state capitols and demanding that they take their power back from D.C. I prefer both tactics because I feel local government is far easier to control than Federal Government. We pay for State Governors, and Representatives, like England pays for the Royal Family, they serve no real function other than historical tradition and do nothing really but cost great expense.
I think even moderates can agree with the idea of much more power to States than to D.C., after all we are a Republic, or were, and State politics are easier to influence than Federal.
As far as the things Bush has done that you approve of overall, I have no idea what they are, no one will list them. Getting us out of Kyoto was good for corporations, and as an aside is good for workers, I don't know how I feel about this other plan that is to replace Kyoto, kind of stealth Kyoto, whereby each corporation is assigned points they can sell to each other in order to "say" they meet the requirements.
Getting us out of the Criminal Court is expedient and neccessary given the "Hate America" fad going on in the world. There is a thread "The Judge As Prosecuter: Two Days At The "Trial" Of Slobodan Milosevic", you might want to check it out, some guy SANDNES around post "50" is claiming there is a documentary showing US soliders massacring Taliban prisoners of war. A complete lie no doubt but to have stayed in that Court would open our military to great risk over every freaking rumor and scam they can come up with.
I'm not downing your support of Bush, even though I can't see it myself. I'm just saying conservatives need to do much better than him and fast. I think if he is successful in his bid to turn the Party hard left, no conservative will have a legitimate reason to go to the polls ever again. It takes alot of gall or evil for a man to take it upon himself to take the Republican Party for a socialist ride, and what that tells us is going on behind the scenes is something conservatives ignore at their own peril because we are incrementally disappearing.